One-way radio transit time, Mars to Earth, on landing day: 13.8 minutesTotal distance of travel, Earth to Mars: About 352 million miles (567 million kilometers)Primary mission: One Martian year (98 weeks) Expected near-surface atmospheric temperatures at landing site during primary mission: minus 130 F to 32 F (minus 90 C to zero C) ProgramCost: $2.5 billion, including $1.8 billion for spacecraft development and science investigations and additional amounts for launch and operations.

Time of Mars landing: 10:31 p.m. Aug. 5 PDT (1:31 a.m. Aug. 6 EDT, 05:31 Aug. 6 Universal Time) plus or minus a minute. This is Earth-received time, which in-cludes one-way light time for radio signal to reach Earth from Mars. The landing will be at about 3 p.m. local time at the Mars landing site

Earth–Mars distance on landing day: 154 million miles (248 million kilometers)

NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission will study whether the Gale Crater area of Mars has evidence of past and present habitable environments. These studies will be part of a broader examination of past and present processes in the Martian atmosphere and on its surface. The research will use 10 instrument-based science investigations. The mission’s rover, Curiosity, carries the instruments for these investigations and will support their use by providing overland mobility, sample-acquisition capabilities, power, and communications. The primary mission will last one Mars year (98 weeks)

The payload includes mast-mounted instruments to survey the surroundings and assess potential sampling targets from a distance; instruments on Curiosity’s robotic arm for close-up inspections; laboratory instruments inside the rover for analysis of samples from rocks, soils, and atmosphere; and instruments to monitor the environment around the rover. In addition to the science payload, engineering sensors on the heat shield will gather information about Mars’ atmosphere and the spacecraft’s performance during its descent through the atmosphere.

The mission will assess whether the area Curiosity explores has ever been a potential habitat for Martian life.

Curiosity will inventory other basic ingredients for life, seek additional evidence about water, and investigate how conditions in the area have changed over time. The wet environment in which the clay minerals formedprocess would favor increased concentration of heavier isotopes in the retained, modern atmosphere. Such processes can be relevant to habitability and biology.

The mission will assess whether the area Curiosity explores has ever been a potential habitat for Martian life.

Curiosity will also check for other chemical elements important for life, such as nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, and oxygen.

• Assess the biological potential of at least one target environment by determining the nature and inventory of organic carbon compounds, searching for the chemical building blocks of life and identifying features that may record the actions of biologically relevant processes.

• Characterize the geology of the rover’s field site at all appropriate spatial scales by investigating the chemical, isotopic, and mineralogical composition of surface and near-surface materials and interpreting the processes that have formed rocks and soils.

• Investigate planetary processes of relevance to past habitability (including the role of water) by assessing the long-time-scale atmospheric evolution and determining the present state, distribution and cycling of water and carbon dioxide.

The Mars Science Laboratory will study the current environment in its landing region as well as the records left by past environments. Curiosity carries a weather station, an instrument for monitoring natural high-energy radiation and an instrument that can detect soil moisture and water-containing minerals in the ground beneath the rover.

The investigations of organics and other potential ingredients for life can analyze samples of modern-day soil for what nutrients would be available to soil microbes. The ability to check for methane in the atmosphere is a study of modern processes, too. Methane would break down and disappear from the atmosphere within a few centuries if not replenished by an active source, so its presence would be surprising.

NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission will put a mobile laboratory onto the surface inside Gale Crater on Mars and use it to investigate the area’s past and present environments.

The mission’s mobile laboratory is the Curiosity rover, equipped with 10 science investigations and a robotic arm that can drill into rocks scoop up soil and deliver samples to internal analytical instruments. The mission will assess whether the area has offered conditions favorable for life and whether conditions were favorable for preserving a rock record of evidence about whether life has existed there. The Curiosity rover has the capability to drive for 12.4 miles (20 kilometers) or more during a mission lasting one Martian year (98 weeks).

A two-stage Atlas V 541 launch vehicle lofted the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. at 10:02 EST on Nov. 26, 2011. The rocket was produced by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. The three numbers in the 541 designation signify a payload fairing, or nose cone, approximately 5 meters (16.4 feet) in diameter; four solid-rocket boosters fastened alongside the central common core booster; and a one-engine Centaur up-per stage. The launch was on the second day into a launch period that went from Nov. 25 through Dec.18. It was moved from Nov. 25 to allow time for removal and replacement of a flight-termination system battery.

The launch successfully put the Mars Science Laboratory mission on its way toward Mars.

Watch the video The story of NASA's new Martian Rover: CuriosityThe Los Angeles chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics presents Peter C Theisinger. Pete is currently the Director, Engineering, and Science Directorate at JPL but has also served as the manager of the Mars Science Laboratory or MSL.In this hour-long presentation, Pete chats with us about MSL, why some decisions were made, why Curiosity is the best rover to ever be sent to Mars and what all of the science means.

Watch the video and understand 7 Minutes of Terror: Curiosity Rover's Risky Mars LandingNASA's Curiosity rover is a 1-ton robot that will make an unprecedented Mars landing on Aug. 5, 2012. See how the risky maneuver will keep rover team members in suspense for 7 fateful minutes.

Watch the video animation This 11-minute animation depicts key events of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission, which will launch in late 2011 and land a rover, Curiosity, on Mars in August 2012.

About Live Feed of Curiosity Landing Where and when to watch Curiosity Landing

Two live feeds of video during key landing activities from mission control rooms at JPL will be carried on NASA TV